Connectors are commonly used in electrical transmission equipment as a means of providing separable connections between components or breaks in the conducting cable or line. The connectors typically have appropriately arranged spring-loaded contacts which line up with and engage one another when the connectors are mated together to establish electrical continuity across the connectors. The connectors are frequently held together by a bayonet lock arrangement including spaced J-grooves having axial and transverse recess portions formed in one of the connectors and radially inwardly extending locking pins or projections formed on the other connector. The locking pins are initially fitted in the axial recesses of the J-grooves and the connectors are moved axially against one another compressing the spring-loaded contacts in one connector to bring the pins to the transverse recesses, and the connectors are then rotated relative to one another to move the locking pins along the transverse recesses. A slight detent hump in the transverse recess portion of each J-groove forms a seating area for the pin spaced remotely of the axial recess and the locking pins are each biased into such a corresponding seating area by the spring-loaded contacts.
The advantage of the foregoing known connector and lock arrangement is that it is easily assembled but a frequently experienced problem is that the connectors can unintentionally become disconnected. This is particular true where the contacts on one of the connectors are spring biased and serve as the sole means for maintaining the bayonet lock secured.